heard about it at 5.30 am on the radio as me and 3 mates were off for a couple of days snowboarding, the cheery morning "crew" were clearly shaken and apologised for not being able to make anyone laugh as they were so freaked out, initial reports estimated 35,000 deaths so i figured i'd better get a good day in on the slopes as the northern hemisphere was probbly gonna be toast by the end of the day. realy didn't feel like I should have been frivoulously enjoying myself as thousands met an awful death.
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9/11 - where/what were you doing...
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Posted 1 year ago #
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I was a student so watched the whole thing on rolling news. Remember thinking what a terrible accident but then when the second plane hit it all came into focus and it was obviously a terrorist attack. I'll never forget the sick feeling in my stomach as I considered who the chimp in charge of Americas big red nuclear button was! I genuinely feared I was witnessing the beginning of the end of the world. Maybe it was.
Posted 1 year ago # -
In Amsterdam with my then girlfriend.
The girl behind the counter in Global Chillage told us about it, but we were pretty far gone and didn't really take it in. I think she thought we were Americans because my girlfriend was wearing an LA Lakers tee shirt.
Watched the footage on Sky News at the hotel, then went and watched an American comedy troupe. Discussed the events with a nice Irish couple who were sat beside us.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Was at work when guy I work with walked in saying he'd heard on his car radio about a plane hitting the twin towers. Thought it was a light aircraft or something. Looked online just as they said another one hit. Knew right away it wasn't no accident. Stood in the boardroom with the rest of the office in complete silence watching it all on the news for hours. Plus I'd been standing underneath the towers about 3 weeks previous.
Posted 1 year ago # -
house sale had fallen through that morning so on a bit of a downer,went to the beach with my wife and daughter
to lift our spirits met a guy in the car park on our way home who mentioned he'd heard on the news about a plane crashing into the twin towers like a few people before i assumed it was a light aircraft accident,got home flicked on the TV couldn't believe what i was seeing sat up all night watching it on CNN
i'll spare a thought for those who lost there lives that dayPosted 1 year ago # -
Receiving text messages from Mrs North scared stiff for her father.
Her father was in working in New York that day. He had flow down from Boston the day before and had been working in the World Trade Centre on 10th september.
Lucky man, though he's completely sanguine about it.
(He and four other colleagues from the UK then tried to leave the USA. Somone suggested splitting up. He told them that was foolish, not least because one coleague was a Muslim with a big beard....)
Posted 1 year ago # -
Camping in St Davids, Pembrokeshire.
Listened to the coverage on Radio 5 and then stood in the Farmers Arms gawping at the TV for a couple of hours.The most vivid memory were the pictures on the fronts of the papers on 12th though.
Nearly as vivid as when I heard about the Dunblane massacre.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I was at a hotel in Heathrow. Specialized were having a dealer roadshow at this hotel, in a load of big basement rooms. Bike shop staff from all over that area went to the hotel and had a look at the shiny 2002 bikes due into their shops, few informal presentations etc. Anyway, about lunchtime I headed off with a journalist mate I'd met there, got a lift back into London with him. We were listening to some cassette he had on then it finished and on the news was Tony Blair speaking to the Teachers Union and saying that "in light of these terrible happenings I obviously can't give my speech..." We were screaming "WHAT'S HAPPENED?!" at the radio and it was AGES before it was announced that a plane had hit the WTC. Even then I was thinking Cessna or similar and wondering why TB would cancel a speech for that. Facts were still really scarce, no-one knew anything so the channels were jammed with speculation.
He dropped me off at Waterloo and I got the bus home, turned the TV on in time to see the first tower fall. Just sat there in complete disbelief.
Edit: a uni friend of mine had flown out of NY on the same flight the previous day!
Posted 1 year ago # -
I was driving to H&J wholesalers in Manchester, and heard it on the radio that the first plane hit. Bought some stuff, came back to Tod, picked son up from childminders, after the 2nd plane had hit.
Got home, son wanted to watch "Bear in the Big Blue House" on the video, and at the time we only had one telly!Incredibly, the day after I got an email from a New York based Planet X customer who was "very dissapointed" that the head tube badge had fallen off his Planet X Zebdi Trials frame.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I was riding on Exmoor, only heard the news back at the campsite that evening then saw a few pictures on the tv with no sound in the pub later on that day.
Posted 1 year ago # -
i was at work and the only thought, took a while to happen but it was inevitable, the attitude of the US meant it would happen eventually.
NExt day went to london via heathrow on the coach, the number of fully kitted police, thought the **** has happened bit late to start worrying about it.
Posted 1 year ago # -
A friend of ours was in NY and was watching it unfold out of her office window
Posted 1 year ago # -
I was on the 8th floor in 30 South Colonnade at Canary Wharf in meeting that'd lasted 2 hours. Came out and all the laptops were showing one of the towers on fire and people were just standing around looking at them. Asked what was going on and one of the guys told me what was going on. Just then they started to empty One Canada Square and there was talk of another plane coming into London. I had to pick something up at South Kensington so set off although there were increasing disruptions. When I went back to South Ken to head back to Chiswick the Tube network had shut down and there were huge queues for buses so I walked back to Hammersmith and managed to get a bus there.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Looking at houses with my GF, walked into one, the TV was on and we went home. Saw the second on TV as it happened, rest of the day in shock.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Much as everyone else, I remember watching it in silence and disbelief - to be frank, and I know it sounds stupid, at first I thought it was a film, couldnt get my head round the fact it was real. I found out a week or so later that an old school friend had died in the attack. Just a sad and tragic loss of life. For those of you who have inferred they had it coming, bear in mind that the victims of the attack were just people going about their daily routines, people like you and me in fact. Youre free to disagree with American foriegn policy, of course, but for God's sake, spare a thought for the people that died that day - they are not the ones that 'had it coming'.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Been out shopping with gift vouchers from our wedding, came home to phone ringing it was a friend telling us to turn the TV on. I asked what chanbel, he said it doesn't matter.
First plane had just hit and then I watched for the rest of the day. We should have been there for out honeymoon but couldn't afford to go after the dog got ran over.
Posted 1 year ago # -
barnsleymitch, my opinion is not about the people who died which is a tragedy. The point is that something like this was IMO inevitable. In the same way as many british and irish citizens have died in the troubles, the individuals may have been innocent but the actions of those in power led to their deaths.
Like any war those in positions of power play games with the lives of others.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I was at work and was told a light airplane had hit the twin towers...
slight surprise when I actually saw the footage!!!! totally gob smacked....
Makes you feel a shamed to be a human sometimes and what we do to one another
Posted 1 year ago # -
I was working in Telecomms and found out when we were getting customers calling us panicking that they couldn't get through to friends in NY
Posted 1 year ago # -
Does anyone remember what they were doing on the 9th of November?
Posted 1 year ago # -
Saw it on the news as I got home. I had to get away from it so went riding at Swinley no radio no phone and enjoyed the beauty of being alive and away from evil people that could be brain washed into doing such terrible deeds.
Posted 1 year ago # -
working for GE in dorking, about to leave that job & take a few flights to get to New Zealand for a 2month holiday.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I was at school, year 8 I think.. Someone said something about it when we were waiting for our buses, saw it on the news when I got home.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I was on a beach in Cornwall with me mum, Daymer Bay. We thought something was up when we saw all the transatlantic planes turning around, stacking and dumping fuel - then heading back east. I think we must have seen the first ones to turn back after being told that US airspace was closed.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Filling a car up on the way back to work after visiting a client. Spent the whole evening glued to the TV.
Posted 1 year ago # -
For those of you who have inferred they had it coming, bear in mind that the victims of the attack were just people going about their daily routines, people like you and me in fact. Youre free to disagree with American foriegn policy, of course, but for God's sake, spare a thought for the people that died that day - they are not the ones that 'had it coming'.
I take a bit of offense at this comment.. Is it a troll..?
Of course it's sad for the folk that lost family and friends..My standpoint is that millions of ordinary people the world over have been happily going about their daily business and have faced large scale horror at the hand of Western foreign policy.. I just refuse to pay this particular act of war any more mind than any other act of war..
Why should we or the US feel that we can act with impunity..?
Posted 1 year ago # -
We'd spent the day at Stonehenge and were doing some shopping in Salisbury on the way back to the campsite , walking through a shopping precinct there was a big crowd outside a shop we thought it must have been a good street performer so went to have a look.
Turned out the crowd was outside a tv rental place , the first tower had been struck and just as we saw the tellys in the window the 2nd plane hit.It was a very strange feeling to see something like this happen , we just walked away in a bit of a daze.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I had a hospital appt with my then 2yr old. We were just chatting to the consultant when the nurse came in and told us to come to the telly in the waiting area. My daughter's minor medical problems were then all but forgotten.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Just parking the fiesta back from a ride at glentress when the radio was interrupted with the news, went inside put the telly on and it was odd, couldn't believe it at first.
Posted 1 year ago # -
seeing the second plane hit live on tv was odd.. I got a hollow feeling.. followed by a terribly real sense of foreboding..
Posted 1 year ago # -
I was in work (school) and everything stopped while the news filtered through, TV's went on in classrooms, the whole school just fell silent...weird!
Bizarrely, doing some work with some Y10's (14) the other day I mentioned 9/11 and hey didn't know what it was which I thought was very sad and a bit ignorant but then I should have learned not to be surprised by now...
Posted 1 year ago # -
In Majorca with the family, Partners father had died recently and we all needed a holiday. One of the girls in the office told us about when I called her at the end of the day. Took ages to find an English speaking channel sat in the kitchen in total disbelief.
Flew back a couple of days later, the Spanish police were out of their minds at the airport, they'd been on duty since the attack and were all strung out. I remember scanning my sons bag through the x ray machine and he had a pair of plastic scissors for cutting paper, the private security were going mental, me and this Spanish cop looking at each other both thinking "has it come to this now?"...he waved me through.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I remember my boss shrugging his shoulders as the second plan hit and saying something like 'the biggest terrorist nation in the world has just been boned up the ass'
harsh but true most likely
EDIT: I also remember remembering that GW Bush was in power and thinking 'oh sh!T!'
Posted 1 year ago # -
Terribly sad and I say this carefully without meaning to sound callous but after years America finally got to feel what it is like for their civilians to be attacked on home soil.
I wonder how many IRA sympathiser/fundraisers reappraised their stance?
In the grandscheme of things America has committed numerous atrocities throughout the world. Far more than 2,000.
Sad but true.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Was at work in the Bristol Royal Infirmary, on a cardiac surgery ward. Everybody trying to crack on with routine tasks, whilst watching the ward TVs (one per 4-6 bedded bay in those days) in mounting disbelief.
Regardless of the wider geopolitics, I still find the footage of those firemen - walking calmly towards buildings that were yet to collapse - intensely sobering. In the documentary 102 minutes you hear the fire control teams trying to contact units after the towers came down, and there is nothing - except the most appalling silence.
Posted 1 year ago #
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